What is the acrolect and basilect in your country?

Easterner   Mon Aug 22, 2005 9:57 am GMT
Sorry, I forgot to sign the previous message.
Sander   Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:04 am GMT
=>In all of the European countries the "acrolect" seems to be whatever is spoken in the capital city. <=

Not here (Netherlands) the dialect of Amsterdam,is absolutely not considered the acrolect (thank god).
Candy   Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:24 am GMT
Why 'thank God', Sander? Is the Amsterdam dialect not nice??
Sander   Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:32 am GMT
They,(Amsterdammers) sound like fish salesmen and women.... ;)
Candy   Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:37 am GMT
LOL!!
Don't even get me started on London accents...
Damian in Edinburgh   Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:51 am GMT
Situation in ENGLAND:

**From what I have read, the London dialect is not only pre-eminent in England, it has actually been spreading throughout the country since the late 18th century**

Cockney - the generally perceived accent of London - not true actually. The original definition of Cockney is the accent of the East End of London and more or else confined to a certain social class in former times....the "lower orders" as Prof. Higgins in Pygmalion would say as he tried (successfully in the end) to slug a plum into Eliza's Cockney gob. A true Cockney was supposed to have been born within the sound of Bow Bells - the church of St Mary le Bow (the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons and all that).

Cockney is now being Bangaladeshed (new word coined) apparently:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/22/nlang22.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/08/22/ixnewstop.html

I'd agree that the ENGLISH acrolect would be standard RP (NOT that vomit inducing Posh ex public school boy crap). The basilect accents for me would be the same other Brits have posted in here...one in particular. I won't say which one but the city has to big footie teams so Kop that one....

Here in SCOTLAND:

Acrolect: Standard English - basic modified Scottish - mostly Lowland....it has to be said without any extreme use of Scots (except when we want to confuse cocky English people).

Basilect: Parts of Glasgow! -deffo - : Easterhouse, Govan, East Kilbride, Cumbernauld.....

In a poll the Scottish accent voted the most pleasant to listen to was the Western Isles - West Highland - generally soft and lilting.

note to the Scottish Tourist Board: snd chq 2 my hme add plse :-)
Brennus   Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:12 pm GMT
Kirk,

???...Brennus your comments on dialects continue to have no linguistic basis...are you still claiming English only has three dialects worldwide?

I'll be happy to discuss any serious linguistic topics with you but I think you're just ambulance chasing here.
Frances   Tue Aug 23, 2005 5:02 am GMT
Well as there are only three types of accents in Australia - broad, general and cultured. The acrolect would have to be a general accent, generally found in capital cities in Australia. The broad accent is more or less the basolect, a-la Steve Irwin and can be found probably more often in the country than in the cities. But a cultured accent is also stigmatised, the person is viewed to be stuffy. As for regional accents, they are still developing but there are minor dislikes between states as to the minor quirkes of each state.
Kirk   Tue Aug 23, 2005 9:19 am GMT
<<I'll be happy to discuss any serious linguistic topics with you but I think you're just ambulance chasing here.>>

Well I and others have discussed this matter with you before and you seem to ignore all or most linguistic facts and data on the topic so I think a new conversation on the topic would just be beating a dead horse.

<<Well as there are only three types of accents in Australia - broad, general and cultured. The acrolect would have to be a general accent, generally found in capital cities in Australia. The broad accent is more or less the basolect, a-la Steve Irwin and can be found probably more often in the country than in the cities. But a cultured accent is also stigmatised, the person is viewed to be stuffy. As for regional accents, they are still developing but there are minor dislikes between states as to the minor quirkes of each state.>>

You mean not everyone in Oz speaks like Steve Irwin ;) :D
Rick Johnson   Tue Aug 23, 2005 11:01 am GMT
RP isn't widely used outside of the South East. Most middle class people tend towards regional standard English. For example, I live in the North West where there are many people who do not have recognizable local accents but have more a more standardized accent. There are differences between this and RP as few people here use the "ah" sound of the South East ( and RP) in glass and bath, but stick to the original short vowel sounds.
Kirk   Tue Aug 23, 2005 12:37 pm GMT
NO! :)
Frances   Tue Aug 23, 2005 12:38 pm GMT
Sorry the above was me to Kirk
Sander   Tue Aug 23, 2005 12:47 pm GMT
I really like this saying... is it sa typical American one or is it known throughout the English world?

'would just be beating a dead horse'
american nic   Tue Aug 23, 2005 3:10 pm GMT
I know it's used (rarely) in Minnesota...not sure about outside the States...
ansiaaa   Tue Aug 23, 2005 3:17 pm GMT
...brennus
In all of the European countries the "acrolect" seems to be whatever is spoken in the capital city. For example, in Romania it would be the Romanian (Rumanian) of Bucharest while the vernaculars of of Oltenia, Transylvania, Bucovina and Moldavia are considered hayseed dialects
...

i'm glad that's not true here in italy! i wouldn't love to speak like someone who lives in rome!

acrolet in italy is plain italian, even if u can speak a bad italian even without using an actual dialect
basilect is any dialect of the south of italy, but also kinda any dialect (it's just that we dont have many dialect still spoken in the north, just accents, even if still very different from one another)

in italy we almost have a dialect for any region, and often for different cities too. and i mean dialect, not just accent!

nowadays if someone speaks in dialect you can barely/not understand him.